Sunday Aborisade, Abuja.
The Governor, Central Bank
of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, explained to the Senate on Tuesday
that some harsh monetary decisions taken by the United States and
Nigeria’s over dependence on foreign goods were responsible for the
continuous fall in the value of the naira against major foreign
currencies.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and
Publicity, Senator Sabi Abdullahi, stated this when he briefed
journalists at the end of the closed-door meeting with the CBN boss.
Emefiele
was said to have stated that other factors like the declining commodity
prices and the geo-political tensions along important trading routes
were equally injurious to the naira value.
Abdullahi said, “He
(Emefiele) touched on the global economy conditions in which he informed
us that we are not immune from external shocks that are currently going
on in the world. These shocks include the following: declining
commodity prices, geo-political tensions along important trading routes
and tightening of monetary policies in the United States of America.
“The Senate appreciated the need to support the various policies being formulated to strengthen the currency.”
Abdullahi
added that the Senate also acknowledged the pains that many people were
experiencing currently, especially in the light of the shortage of
foreign exchange for legitimate businesses.
He, however, said
that having carefully considered the policies of the CBN, the upper
legislative chamber would like to commend and support them because they
were mostly geared towards increasing local production, creating jobs in
the country, safeguarding the commonwealth and expanding economic
opportunities and growth.
Abdullahi stated, “It is, therefore,
critical that we all join our hands together to seek both short-term
and long-term solutions to our underlying problems of
non-diversification of foreign exchange earnings and revenues rather
than pointing fingers at who did what and who’s to blame.
“The
Senate believes strongly in the resilience of the Nigerian economy and
the ingenuity of the Nigerian people, and as such, we are confident that
we will all pull through these difficulties and come out as an
equitable and prosperous nation.”
Abdullahi anchored the meeting
with the CBN governor on the section of the CBN Act, which required that
it should brief the National Assembly on periodic basis.
He
said, “This appearance by the CBN governor and his management team is in
line with Section 8 of the CBN Act, 2007, which requires that the
governor of the bank provides the National Assembly periodic updates on
the activities of the bank as well as the performance of the economy.
“In
view of the above, the CBN governor presented a detailed, comprehensive
and lucid account of the performance of the Nigerian economy in the
last one year.”
The Senate spokesperson noted that Emefiele
explained the occurrences within the Nigerian economy, especially with
respect to the over 70 per cent decline in oil prices from about $116
per barrel in June 2014 to about less than $30 presently.
He said
“The CBN governor also gave us an insight into the bank’s analysis and
understanding of the situation and, therefore, the rationale underlining
the various policy actions the bank has taken over the past couple of
months.
“He also provided an insight into other countries that
are facing similar difficulties and how they have dealt with them. Based
on these analyses, it is clear that Nigeria is not doing badly, and I
think we are on course to see how we can bring back Nigeria into the
path of economic prosperity.
“After the presentation, of course,
there were questions from distinguished senators on many issues,
especially the stoppage of foreign exchange to the Bureaux De Change,
the gradual rise in inflation, and the fallen foreign exchange reserves,
among others.”
Source: http://www.punchng.com/emefiele-blames-naira-fall-on-us-policy-importation/
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